Journal of Housing and the Built Environment最新文献

Domestic heating transitions must balance environmental and social policy goals, which leads to conflicts between cost, pace, and cleanliness. It is a challenge for urban policies in Central European cities, where outdated social housing stock meets increasing people's aspirations on improving air quality and climate change mitigation goals. Utilizing insights from the case study of Warsaw, this research evaluates the patterns of domestic coal phase-out in social housing, combining in-depth analysis of unique heating transition data with official census records and qualitative analysis . The investigation uncovers reprivatization, revitalization, and rationalization as three avenues through which heating transitions may inadvertently contribute to gentrification and displacements. These findings underscore the dual role of heating transitions in social housing, acting as a mitigation strategy or a catalyst for socio-spatial segregation, reproducing the ideologies of the dominant urban policy paradigm.

Abstract

As a major public emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected people’s lives worldwide, resulting in changes in housing demand. Based on the China Household Finance Survey in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021, and the COVID-19 infections and confirmed cases in all cities, this study applies a difference-in-differences (DID) model to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on households’ housing consumption. The results show that the COVID-19 pandemic reduces households’ housing consumption. This decline is caused by changes in households’ purchase intentions and households’ deposit. Furthermore, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is more pronounced for households living in first- and second-tier cities and in central and eastern China, and COVID-19 has a greater impact on the housing consumption of urban hukou households and households residing in owner-occupied housing. Overall, this study provides new insights into the impacts of public emergencies on household housing consumption and decisions regarding housing market participation.

Housing the working population is of paramount importance in regions relying on substantial human capital influx. Given the inadequacies in the supply of public housing, some governments are encouraging employer involvement in housing assistance provision. Therefore, it is meaningful to delve into the industrial society in which employer housing was prevalent and examine its evolving dynamics in the post-industrial society, which can offer valuable insights into contemporary policymaking related to employer-involved housing assistance. Informed by the welfare regime theory, this study investigates the provision structures of employer housing driven by specific forces in countries characterized by welfare capitalism (the UK, the US, and Germany) and welfare authoritarianism (the Soviet Union and China) in the industrial society, and discusses the trend in the post-industrial era. The findings indicate that employers under early welfare capitalism exercised substantial control over housing provision primarily for business purposes, whereas employer housing under welfare authoritarianism was profoundly influenced by state power, serving as a tool for state-led industrialization and socio-political governance. Transitioning into the post-industrial society, employer housing under both welfare regimes evolved towards a paradigm of welfare pluralism, with diversified housing aids provided through cooperation among various actors. This paper argues that welfare pluralism represents a more suitable idea for employers’ housing assistance in the post-industrial era, addressing the limitations associated with traditional employer housing, such as business burdens, sectoral inequality, and labor exploitation. The research findings can inform the formulation of employer-involved housing policies and contribute to the broader housing support system.

Student accommodation in university towns provided by the private rented sector has been severely affected by distance education and the downturn in urban rental economies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though there are no predictions concerning the future of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to understand students' current experiences and paths to be ready for the adverse effects of possible future crises. A small university town, Menteşe/Muğla in Türkiye, is selected as a case study area to examine the initial impact of the pandemic on the private rented sector used by university students. One-fourth of the population is students in Menteşe, and they have been protesting about the high rent levels and poor housing conditions for years. This study focuses on the leasing and payment problems experienced by students during the pandemic, in addition to the difficulties in living conditions. These problems are considered significant regarding the future and resilience of the private housing market. The study concludes that the private rented sector should be regulated and monitored to overcome supply shortages and to improve housing quality. Also, a registration and licensing system is needed to identify student housing in the private market to overcome the difficulties arising in terms of leasing and housing quality.

This article investigates evictions and housing stability specifically among Latina and immigrant mothers in Salt Lake City, Utah utilizing a gender lens. This is a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project in partnership with Community Voices for Housing Equality (CVHE). Researcher-participants from CVHE, a non-incorporated community group of social workers, residents, students, and professors from the University of Utah, were concerned about the climate of hostility that was felt toward those living in west side neighborhoods where most immigrants, refugees, and people of color live. The data for the study is drawn from 20 Latinas—nine (9) one-on-one interviews and a focus group with 11 participants as well as a community workshop with the same participants where researchers invited staff from the Disability Law Center to discuss with participants’ legal questions that emerged during the focus group. The main findings of the study were that many of the participants were unsure or completely unaware of their rights as tenants. The majority of them felt they had been a victim of housing discrimination at least once, much of it stemming from difficulty with language barriers between themselves and their landlords or property managers. The absence of written contracts and tendency to search out housing where extensive background checks were not required, resulted in many participants living in month-to-month arrangements, leaving them vulnerable housing instability and fearing an eviction. Moreover, many participants expressed being powerless to law changes in eviction and tenant-landlord relations.

The literature on sustainable housing is becoming increasingly popular around the world. Empirical research, however, does not acknowledge the existence of a comprehensive and unified approach to sustainable housing goals. It is still unclear if the mindset toward sustainable housing is rooted enough among various stakeholder groups to allow going beyond the concept of energy-efficient developments. That is why the study focuses on examining the perception of sustainable housing goals among future home buyers. The analysis presented in this paper comprises two stages. First, the analytical hierarchy process is used to assess the relative importance of the three main dimensions of sustainable housing, which are: economic, ecological, and social dimensions. Secondly, based on the emerged clusters, willingness to pay for the improvement of the chosen parameters of the residential building is verified. Regarding the adopted research approach, four homogeneous groups of future home buyers have been identified, namely ecologically oriented, socially oriented, cost-saving oriented, and mixed. The results of the study also reveal that the most appealing to future home buyers are the ecological and economic aspects, while the social ones still require further research. The article contributes to a better understanding of the process of sustainable housing development among potential home buyers, and what may be relevant to different stakeholders engaged in the process of sustainable development. Each of the stakeholder groups, starting from households via developers and policy-makers to academia, plays a specific role in this process.

The input–output efficiency of China’s Housing Provident Fund (HPF) program has received increasing academic attention in recent years. However, few studies have been conducted to examine its temporal-spatial variations and influencing factors. To fill the gaps, this study first used a DEA model to measure the input–output efficiency of HPF of 287 Chinese cities from 2015 to 2020, and then employed the Tobit regression model to determine the main influencing factors. Results indicate: (1) China's HPF input–output efficiency grew consistently from 2015 to 2020, remaining relatively high even during the Covid-19 outbreak. (2) HPF's efficiency displays notable spatial variation, with values higher in the eastern region and large cities compared to the western/central areas and medium/small cities. (3) Macroeconomic factors, housing market conditions, and HPF management elements significantly influence HPF efficiency, yet specific impacts vary; some factors (e.g., housing prices, capital investment intensity, fund utilization level) are positive, while others (housing price-to-income ratios, commercial housing loan interest rates, number of contributing employees) are negative. This study enhances understanding of HPF efficiency over time and space in China, offering insights for policy reform and system enhancement.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted homeworking to become a ‘new normal’. Consequently, the effects of various homeworking-related housing attributes on housing prices may be changed. However, few studies have explicitly examined if and how the practice of homeworking changes the associations between these particular housing attributes and housing prices. In light of this, based on a database of 2-year property transaction records in Guangzhou, China, this study develops several multilevel hedonic price models and multilevel difference-in-differences (DID) hedonic price models to delve into the COVID-19-induced variations in such housing attributes-housing prices associations. Our findings are as follows. (1) The practice of homeworking seems not to have fundamentally changed the effects of homeworking-related housing attributes on housing prices (suggested by the unchanged coefficient directions between pre- and post-COVID models); (2) Significant differences do exist in magnitudes of the effects of homeworking-related housing attributes on housing prices between pre- and post-COVID periods; (3) Those attributes (associated with homeworking space, convenient commute between workplace and home, and necessary needs of daily shopping and services) that facilitate homeworking tend to have higher price premiums and/or lower price discounts. This study provides novel evidence on hedonic price effects of homeworking in housing markets and their variations from pre-COVID to Post-COVID periods, which enriches the recently heated debates on property market responses to COVID-19.

Due to the growing importance of accessibility to urban amenities on quality of life and neighborhood satisfaction in South Korea, various efforts have been made to improve accessibility to urban amenities by establishing a minimum standard, an approach called Living Social Overhead Capital (Living SOC); for example, one such standards states that an elementary school should be reachable within a 15-min walk. However, these endeavors have not yet resulted in an equal distribution of Living SOC in urban and rural areas. Many residents feel the disparity of Living SOC is greatest in areas where the rural city was incorporated into an adjacent urban city—often called an integrated urban–rural city—or when new towns were developed in rural cities. This situation can lead to the creation of dissimilar landscapes and infrastructure within a single city. As such, this research observes how the resultant disparity in proximity between urban and rural areas impacts neighborhood satisfaction, as reflected in housing prices. The outcomes indicate that, with the exception of senior care and education, all observed amenities were found to be located closer to residences in urban areas. Additionally, the closer the Living SOC, the higher the housing prices. The findings of this study posit an urgent need for a comprehensive Living SOC plan for entire cities, not only for newly developed areas, to avoid widening the existing gap between urban and rural Living SOC.